158 THE PUBLIC NURSERIES FOR TREES, SHRUBS, ETC. 



and spring flowers consist of quantities of common and not 

 always first-class kinds. They have, for instance^ very few 

 Tritomas in the Vincennes Nursery, and none at all in the 

 parks, though they are perhaps the most useful and attrac- 

 tive of all autumn flowers. It is, however, only fair to state 

 that the nursery stock was killed in the winter of 1867. 

 But when groups of these plants are established in the parks 

 or gardens there should be little difficulty in preserving 

 them by placing leaves over the roots in winter. 



The nursery for the Pines and Rhododendrons is also in 

 the Bois de Boulogne, near Auteuil, occupying somewhere 

 about the same space as the one previously described. The 

 climate of Paris is not so favourable to the growth of coni- 

 ferous trees as that of England, and consequently to the Eng- 

 lish visitor the Auteuil garden does not look so attractive as 

 that at Longchamps, but it is well stocked, and serves its pur- 

 pose admirably. The American plants are mostly grown in 

 the slight shade afforded by thin hedges of Arborvitse. The 

 ivy used for making the edgings, which are so much admired 

 in Paris gardens, and for every other purpose for which the 

 plant is employed, is grown here. Cuttings are first put in 

 in handfuls, so close that the stems touch each other. After 

 a year or so they are transferred singly into four or six-inch 

 pots, and plunged below the rims into the sandy soil. They 

 are used for forming the edgings at the age of two or three 

 years. Galvanized wire is extensively used here for the pur- 

 pose of supporting plants that are usually staked. Stretched 

 tightly in parallel lines at about the height the line of plants 

 requires it forms a neater, handier, and cheaper support than 

 ordinary wooden stakes^ which are so liable to decay and 

 shake about. 



